The participation of North Korean units on the Ukrainian front will not bring about major changes and they will probably suffer major losses, said Colonel Ants Kiviselg, commander of the Estonian Defense Forces Intelligence Center. However, in the Donetsk region,
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Russian armed forces still hold the initiative and have forced the Ukrainian armed forces to gradually retreat, he added. "Unfortunately, there is nothing positive from the Ukrainian front line this week. The Russian Armed Forces still hold the initiative along the entire
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front line, which has forced the Ukrainian armed forces to gradually retreat," Kiviselg said at a Defense Ministry press conference. According to him, the average number of attacks per day remained at the same level as in previous weeks, i.e. about 167 attacks per day.
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"The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are capable of capturing most of the territories in the Donetsk region, primarily in the areas of Pokrovsk, Kurakhove, Vuhledar and Velyka Novosilka. Over the past week, the Russian Federation has occupied an additional 150 square
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kilometers of territory in these regions," Kiviselg said. "In addition, there are signs that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are preparing assault strikes in the area of the Zaporizhzhia region. It is likely that the already known to us 76th Airborne Division
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with a permanent deployment location in Pskov, Then the goal will be to capture new territories, as well as additional involvement of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this region," Kiviselg said. "To summarize, it can be said that alarming events continue to occur in the
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Donetsk region and the Donetsk region. It is possible that the Russian Armed Forces will achieve a local breakthrough in the Pokrovsk, Kurakhovo or Vuhledar areas this year," he added. The Russian army has asked to extend the deadline for taking Kursk. Speaking about
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the arrival of North Korean soldiers at the front, Kiviselg said that according to Ukraine, 3,000 soldiers of the 11th Army Corps of the North Korean Armed Forces, including several hundred servicemen of the North Korean special forces, have arrived in the Kursk region.
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"These servicemen probably arrived on the territory of the Russian Federation in early October, where they underwent preliminary training in the Eastern Military District, which lasted approximately two to four weeks, after which they were sent to the Ukrainian front,"
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Kiviselg said. "In total, North Korea had to allow the Russian Federation to send from 10 to 12 thousand soldiers, including 500 officers and three generals. Probably, the arrival of North Korean soldiers to the Ukrainian front will take place in stages. "The arrival of
the
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next North Korean units on the Ukrainian front will take place in the coming weeks," Kiviselg said. Kiviselg said that, as a rule, North Korean soldiers are trained for combat in mountainous terrain, which means that the territory of Ukraine, its climate and geography are
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unknown to them. "And therefore, their training does not actually require combat in such areas. The training they receive in the Russian Federation is certainly not very good. "Therefore, we can expect that North Korean units will suffer heavy losses in Ukraine, and
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presumably even heavier losses than the armed forces have suffered in the Russian Federation so far," Kiviselg said. Despite this, Kiviselg believes that it is possible that North Korea will continue to send units to Russia and the Ukrainian front. "Despite this, the
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intelligence center's assessment is still that this sending of North Korean units to the Ukrainian front will not bring about major changes at the moment. But if this kind of additional sending of units to Russia, their training, and then their arrival at
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the Ukrainian front continues for a long time, then this could certainly bring about certain changes on the front line," Kiviselg said.
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The new talks between Trump, Putin, and Zelensky are likely to end in yet another deadlock. This time, Putin has softened his illegal demands and is now “ready to give up” the Zaporizhzhia region in exchange for a ceasefire and control over the rest of Donetsk region. These
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“concessions” have probably signaled to Trump that Putin is ready for negotiations, and that maybe, finally, he can strike a peace deal and get his long-coveted Nobel Prize - since it didn’t work out with Israel, where Hamas opened fire again. The White House rhetoric has
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once again shifted sharply, from “Tomahawks are already on their way to Kyiv” to “Donbas should be Russian.” It’s the same old Kremlin ploy - when things go badly, start pushing for negotiations. All this commotion began after Putin’s call with Trump and has now turned into
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In Russia, a new wave of hatred toward Chechens is flaring up - and this time, the reason seems surprisingly harmless: a Central Bank vote to choose the image for a new 500-ruble banknote. Yet another attempt by the authorities to distract from economic and social problems
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has unexpectedly exposed deep-seated interethnic tensions that have been smoldering in the country for decades. Two options emerged as frontrunners in the online voting: Mount Elbrus and the Grozny City business center - a symbol of the modern Chechen capital. In the region
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itself, the campaign has taken on the character of a national project: authorities, schools, hospitals, and military units have been organized to participate. The process is personally supervised by Ramzan Kadyrov and his administration. This activity provoked a stormy
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The Russian Ministry of Defense has drafted a bill to involve Russian citizens in the Armed Forces reserve in performing tasks during peacetime, RBC reports, citing a copy of the document. The government approved the initiative on October 13, according to a source familiar 1/9
with the matter. The bill proposes that reservists can be called up for special training sessions by presidential decree. These “special sessions” are described as military gatherings aimed at fulfilling specific defense-related tasks in cases of armed conflict, 2/9
counterterrorist operations, or the deployment of forces abroad. According to Andrei Kartapolov, head of the State Duma Defense Committee, the bill expands the ability to use reservists in various circumstances. He noted that it introduces broad legal definitions that would 3/9
Russian Uralvagonzavod - the country’s main manufacturer of railway cars and also tanks (since Soviet times, Russia has had a tradition of dual-purpose factories, where the producer of metal buckets might also make artillery shells) - is switching its civilian workforce 1/7
to a four-day workweek. The change will affect only employees in the railcar production division. They were offered to transfer to “other divisions with active orders,” since the situation is quite different in tank production. Uralvagonzavod, part of the Rostec corporation, 2/7
is Russia’s largest tank manufacturer. After the start of the war, the plant switched to a three-shift schedule, and since August 2022 has been operating around the clock. Russia’s economy is increasingly shifting to a war footing, while its civilian sector is rapidly 3/7
Another sign of growing problems in the Russian economy. Next year, Russia will cut spending on the production and repair of aircraft by one and a half times — from 139.6 billion to 85.7 billion rubles. This was reported by The Moscow Times. “The Russian government plans 1/9
to reduce funding for the federal project ‘Production of Aircraft and Helicopters’ by 1.6 times in 2026 - from 139.6 billion to 85.7 billion rubles,” the report says. According to the draft of Russia’s new budget for 2026–2028, spending will also decrease in 2027 compared to 2/9
previously planned figures - from 109.7 billion to 86.9 billion rubles (a 21% drop). Funding is expected to slightly increase only in 2028 - to 89.3 billion rubles. The publication notes that the most significant cuts will affect state support for Russian airlines renewing 3/9
Europe still does not fully understand the threat posed by Russia. There has been growing talk of a possible attack on the Baltic states, but in reality, this threat is minimal - and the real danger lies elsewhere. Putin has found a grey zone, and so far it brings far
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greater benefits than any ground operation could. NATO has spent its entire existence preparing for a conventional war with infantry and tanks, but the main threat today is hybrid warfare. There is no need to launch missiles to paralyze airports or completely collapse
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a country's banking or energy system - cyberwarfare is a reality, not a fantasy from Hollywood films. Putin’s goal is to sow discord within Western societies, and hybrid war offers a wide range of tools to achieve that. His main target remains Ukraine, and he is doing
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